Escaping the echo-chamber

and just to be clear...

we DON'T mean:

if people don't know how we can help them, they won't come to us for help

so what should we do about it?

Examples of

Failure

The Seth Godin Uber Echo Disaster!

...but nobody notices

except other librarians

The Newsnight Uber Library Disaster!

Hold on - there's more than 4,500 libraries in the UK. That's 69 books per library per year!

More Newsnight Woe...

it all feels very familiar - people reach audiences of millions with erronous information about libraries; our riposte reaches only ourselves...

Successful

Escapes

Library Media Narrative

Moving

beyond the

echo-chamber

Profile of an escapologist

•Ask for stuff. The worst thing that can happen is they’ll say no. Inspired by Ian Clark’s success with Comment is Free, I sent an email to them asking if I could write about the situation in Doncaster with some nationwide context. They said yes! My article was Editor’s Pick of the Day! Hurrah. This really helped to get the word out there about what’s going on with public library cuts. Similarly, I really wanted to go to the Public Library Authority Conference but couldn’t afford it, so sent an email to one of the sponsors. They said yes, I got to go and have a nosy and talk to people about what I’m up to.

•Make the most of as many opportunities as you can. For me that’s meant doing interviews for BBC Radio 5 Live before hopping on the train to work, writing little bits for CILIP magazines or full articles for journals, all kinds of different things.

•Keep remembering that It’s Important and You Love It!

•Be as confident as you can. I’m not that experienced and I’m not the greatest writer or public speaker, but I’ve found it very helpful to pretend you’re confident until you realise that for the most part, people are really supportive and agree with you that libraries and librarians are great, so they’re not looking to pick holes in what you’re saying.

•Ask for help. Use your networks – places like LIS New Professionals site and Twitter are great. A wonderful character trait of all the librarians and info pros I know is that they’re generous with their time, skills and knowledge and will help where they can.

•Related to this, get together. I’m now working with info pros and librarians from across the country to run the Voices for the Library campaign. There are lots of benefits to this, including the obvious ten heads are better than one. More ideas + more skills + more people to advocate = more impact!

4,000 views in 48hrs

Respond to attacks using the same medium from whence they came...

Develop a 'team of rivals'!

We have to know how people think about libraries, whether they are positive or negative. That means keeping track of the misunderstanders and even the hostile, via blogs, publications etc

Over

to

you!

July 22nd, CDG Yorkshire & Humbserside AGM / Members Day, Leeds

• This event was open to non CILIP members - w00t!
• Bethan has successfully escsped the echo chamber during this very presentation - w00t!
• SINTO Carl: to what extent should the profession get involved with BUFOONS online when they talk a bunch of rubbish? Perhaps it IS worth it. Just having SOME rebutall is worth while, just so it isn't unmitigated library hate online.
• Lauren: if people are engaged enough to make a comment (for example on a BBC news article about libraries) then perhaps they are in a place on the curve of engagement where they are worth borthering with - after all, at least they're bothered at all...
• Liam: we need to engage with the social side of things more, mix with different groups and get people involved
• Biddy: Ian Clark's blog - not only did he think it would be a good idea; he followed through and sent it in, and actually got it published. Second point: sometimes you have to go off message and get people talking, even if you have to put up with a lot of responses..
• Maria: be proactive not reactive - and keep trying even if it doesn't work first time. So CILIP Manifesto - it was quite good in terms of responses from politcal parties etc, but perhaps if we can keep going we can make the next one better
• Jay: get out there, deliver the positive messages wherever you can, even if it's just a small thing planted in someone's mind

For links to most of the people whose ideas

we've reproduced in this presentation, go to

http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=841

Feedback from twitter and the blogosphere:

Suggestions from Twitter and blogs

Annie Mauger's barnstorming speech convinces the WI to #savelibraries!

Someone writes a response to Seth Godin that isn't on a library blog!

...and mentioning this at the Echo Chamber presentation in July got this response from one of the TEDx organisers...

Librarian on the stage!

Chrystie Hill, OCLC, talks at TEDx Columbus

Librarians infiltrate a group of digital media-types to talk about the digital divide!

Library-related Facebook group gets 8,000 fans!

...the most recent of which gets quoted by the New York Times!

Several librarians write about library issues for The Guardian's Comment is Free...

Take control of the narrative

...are libraries in decline? No. However, the narrative is not being controlled by the profession but by those who either do not understand the service or are trying to undermine it for their own ends. The best way to challenge these myths? Personally, I agree with others who say there is a need to break out of the ‘echo chamber’ and take back control of the narrative. Only then can we bury the myth that libraries are irrelevant in the digital age.

Ian Clark: http://bit.ly/dzhBnN

The library media narrative, and the need to be in control of it, underpins everything we're talking about here. So who is currently writing the narrative?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The bad

The ugly

The good

"...if it had not been for the idiotic self serving and self centred behaviour of senior public librarians, and their colleagues who got into posts advising government, over fifteen years, we would not be faced with this struggle to save our whole public library service. If those individuals had understood and focussed on books and reading, the library service would now be fine."

Tim Coates

http://www.goodlibraryguide.com/blog/archives/2010/12/if_these_librar.html

"AND now for some good news: the Government is to shut all the libraries in County Durham! Well, not quite, but massive cuts are on the way. Genuinely nothing makes me happier.

Most people don’t give a toss despite the words of Annie Mauger from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (what?!) who says: “In such (economic) times, communities need their libraries more than ever. People need shared spaces, places to find information and support, to borrow books, to relax and escape.”

This is utter rubbish and proves that most people inside the insular world of libraries are blatantly in denial of the electronic future. In fact, forget the future, it’s here."

Tony Horne

http://bit.ly/f1co4q

From The Times:

"Why I’m on a new page with local libraries - It was my ideas that were dog-eared, not the places themselves..

When I criticised local libraries I didn’t know exactly what I was attacking. This was just one library but I think it’s indicative of how libraries are evolving."

Frank Skinner

http://www.frankskinnerlive.com/news-pop-up.php?id=130

World's most read marketing guru says:

The biblioblogosphere response begins:

The biblioblogosphere gathers steam:

- Sharon Clapp

Step 1: Yay, libraries on newsnight!

Step 3: you what?!

Step 2: oh dear

Step 4: the panel

Step 5: twitter etc goes mad with frustration...

David Grossman asks whether public libraries are just

Margaret Hodge MP basically says

we're cutting spending on libraries

...but nobody notices

except other librarians

what?

an ethos in search of a function

Libraries are represented by Alan

Gibbons, library campaigner and author

Actually, the borrowing figure stands at

but not by anyone who even works in a library or

for a library body, let alone someone in a position

to correct Newsnight's borrowing figures which

were, after all, wrong to the power of 1000!

three hundred and

fourteen MILLION

Not only that but unmentioned by Newsnight

is the fact that actually, for the first time in 20 years

Library borrowing is up

The infamous KPMG report

It wasn't referenced

It wasn't accurate

Here's a visual metaphor for what happened next...

...BUT NOBODY NOTICES EXCEPT OTHER LIBRARIANS!

We asked US librarians on twitter how many staff were volunteers versus paid:

Full report at http://rd.kpmg.co.uk/docs/KPMG_PFS_June2010.pdf

Quote from page 19:

Quote from Bethan Ruddock's blog

Karen Muller - Librarian, American Library Association

...public libraries in the U.S., while overseen by volunteer or elected boards, are managed by paid staff—with more than half of the libraries reporting having a degreed librarian—see http://harvester.census.gov/imls/pubs/Publications/pls2008.pdf (Table 16). Volunteers are engaged for selective programs—most often as part of the “friends” group that assists with special events—including book sales.

Laura Woods

aka "WoodsieGirl"

Information Services Advisor

Addleshaw Goddard LLP

http://woodsiegirl.wordpress.com/

Ned Potter

aka "thewikiman"

Academic Liaison Librarian

University of York

http://thewikiman.org

This presentation:

http://bit.ly/echoescape

Techniques

Getting known

Since seeing a previous Echolib presentation Lauren Smith (http://twitter.com/walkyouhome) has become a one-woman Library Saving MACHINE. Here's her top tips to get beyond the Echo Chamber:

Stealth Advocising!

tap into the zeitgeist

Stealth Advocising: creating material for library advocacy, but packaging it in something of intrinsic awesomeness so that non-librarians will be interested in it anyway – thereby extending its reach and escaping the echo chamber. Stealth advocising is the Trojan Horse of library advocacy.

Find this Prezi, along with articles, tweets, introductory slide decks and lots more info, at: http://www.netvibes.com/nedpotter#The_Echo_Chamber

For example, create a pretty slide-deck about what it takes to work in libraries, and who knows what'll happen...

read

your users

write for publications

View the original at http://slidesha.re/aXj9dy

Avoid mixing our messages

I know there are reasons for every policy, but if we claim to be customer-oriented and welcoming, then you should take a new look at every rule and see if it needs to be changed to keep up with the times.

Kathy Dempsey

Dealing with criticism

What is the Echo Chamber?

if you're tweeting today:

• #UB11 / #echolib
• Ned Potter: @theREALwikiman
• Laura Woods: @woodsiegirl

the bit we're interested in is:

why does echolib matter?

The term "echo chamber" can refer to any situation in which information, ideas or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission inside an "enclosed" space.

Because many people don't understand libraries, not really.

Because funding to libraries is being

cut on both sides of the Atlantic.

Because there are many more channels

for library skepticism than there are

for library advocacy

If libraries were invented tomorrow, people would FLOCK to them.

escaping the echo-chamber

Feedback from the room:

...BUT NOBODY

NOTICES EXCEPT

OTHER LIBRARIANS!

what is the

echo-chamber?